2012

The Cosmos is the first in Wysing’s series of residencies for 2012, followed by The Mirror (July/August) and The Forest (November/December). Artists have been invited, through a selection process, to come to Wysing to make new work in response to these themes.

Four artists and artist groups, Salvatore Arancio, Flora Parrott, Nilsson Pflugfelderand Stuart Whipps, were in residence for six weeks from 1 April, where developed new work culminating in an exhibition in Wysing’s gallery.

During each residency distinguished experts, amateur hobbyists and members of the public will contribute to an ongoing talks and events programme. The three themes, or environments, have emerged from ongoing artistic enquiry at Wysing. The Cosmos, the initial starting points of which were the past, origins and knowledge, The Mirror: the present, reflection and commentary and The Forest: the future and transformation through nature are influenced by literary references to other worlds and the merging of fact and fiction, in particular the writings of JG Ballard, Jorge Luis Borges, Michel Foucault, WG Sebald and Kurt Vonnegut.

The Cosmos

Reinforcing the literary influences on the residencies, Escalator artist-in-residence Patrick Coyle is documenting the year long programme of residencies through creative writing via his ongoing blog

Work created by artists during the residency programme, which is funded by Arts Council England and Paul Hamlyn Foundation, is shown at Wysing Arts Centre before being seen by audiences at venues across the UK and beyond.

1 April — 12 May 2012

Salvatore Arancio’s artistic signature is photo-etching, but he works across a range of media such as collage, animation and video. Arancio’s main interest lies in the potential of images. Departing from their literal meaning, he creates new juxtapositions that are both beautifully evocative and deeply disquieting. Arancio looks to nature and science for his sources of inspiration, while unsettling any hint of the sublime by re-framing the images and the viewer’s experience. His constructed landscapes contain a sense of both the familiar and the unknown that enhances their symbolic readings and implications.

Salvatore Arancio

Flora Parrott’s work is drawn from a compulsion to explain a state of ‘being’, a state that is always evolving and changing. Her work invariably takes the form of 3-dimensional collage in which instinctively chosen images and objects are arranged in a way that articulates a physical experience. The work is made and displayed in an effort to understand and dissect these experiences; to clarify, examine and ‘pin down’ sensations that otherwise seem chaotic and incomprehensible.

Parrott graduated from the Royal College of Art, Printmaking in 2009. She lives in London and works as a Lecturer on the BA and MA Fine Art Course at Norwich University College of Art. Recent exhibitions include: Interstice, Testbed1, London; Trapezius, The Herbert Gallery and Museum, Coventry; Dipole, a solo show and residency at the Ryedale Folk Museum; Circuit: Five Deductions, a solo show with Tintype, London. Parrott is represented by Tintype, London.

Flora Parrott

Nilsson Pflugfelder was founded by Magnus Nilsson and Ralf Pflugfelder and is based in London and Berlin. The practice is situated on the intersection of critical spatial design, architecture, art and discourse. Nilsson Pflugfelder have been specialising in projects where spatial constructs overlap, dissect and frictionally flatten several usually distinct programs into one coherent gesture. They have an ongoing obsession with archives and - more specifically - how virtual and physical knowledge can be prevented from entering the realm of the forgotten and instead be turned into something visible, present and productive. In tandem with their physical output, they have written a number of theoretical papers on the archive. Magnus Nilsson is an architect, theorist and writer. Ralf Pflugfelder is an artist who explores the spatial aesthetics of utopias and their narratives across several media including drawing, painting, sculpture, video and sound.

Nilsson Pflugfelder

Stuart Whipps’ work begins with an historic position or artefact. His practice is an examination of issues associated with shared bodies of knowledge. Predominantly using photography and video alongside remade or visually reconfigured materials Whipps questions the role of documentation. His work explores the shifting nature of cultural values and context coupled with a questioning of the importance, veracity or significance of historical documents over time. Recent works have utilised found negatives from redundant photographic labs, the online archive of Margaret Thatcher’s Speeches, Interviews and Statements, The National Archives at Kew, an online archive of vintage ‘adult publications’, Microfilm collections, and the photographic collection of the British Motor Heritage Museum amongst other diverse sources.

Whipps lives and works in Birmingham. Recent solo exhibitions include: Why Contribute to the Spread of Ugliness? Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; New Wooabbeleri, Focal Point Gallery, Southend on Sea; The Scenery is Very Wonderful. The Weather is Good, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Wales and Ming Jue, New Art Gallery Walsall. He has presented work in the following group shows: Community Without Propinquity, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes; Slimvolume, Hayward touring exhibition and Narrative Show, Eastside Projects, Birmingham.

Stuart Whipps

Patrick Coyle has an MFA in Writing from Goldsmiths College, London (2010). He has recently performed at the launch of CONCRETE POETRY at Hayward’s Concrete Café, London and at Spike Island, Bristol. He was the inaugural writer-in-residence for Akerman Daly in 2011.

His blog, www.wysingsongs.tumblr.com documents the 2012 residencies at Wysing (The Cosmos, The Mirror and The Forest) and can be readhere.